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STORY OF OUR SQUARE 
@r MARY P LEONARD 



PUBLISHERS • NEW YORK 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Receivod 

AUG 11 1903 

Copyright Entry 
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Copyright, 1903, 

By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 


Published September , IQ03. 


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CONTENTS. 


Chapter Page 

I. Why Pickles ? 1 

II. Different Opinions 10 

III. Public Spirits 20 

IV. The Elephant 29 

V. The Bird in the Globe .... 38 

VI. An Accident 47 

VII. The News 58 

VIII. The Hospital 63 

IX. A Confession 72 

X. Mr. Aleck Makes Plans ... 79 

XI. A Birthday Party 86 


> 


CHAPTER I. 


WHY PICKLES? 

"But why pickles?” asked Mr. Aleck, who 
liked to understand things. 

" Pickles or potatoes, what do I care ? ” 
thundered the major. " Here is my new walk 
ruined, and it will cost dear knows how much 
to undo the mischief. I ’ll sift this matter to 
the bottom, or my name is not Archibald 
Brings T ” 

"I should certainly speak to a policeman, 
Archibald,” said Mrs. Briggs, who stood in the 
front door, her silken draperies fluttering in 
the breeze. 

" Go into the house at once, Marion, you ’ll 
take cold,” ordered the major. 

Mr. Aleck shook his head. " Now if it had 
stated what brand of pickles it might seem in- 
tended for an advertisement, but just pickles,” 
he continued, but no one paid any attention. 


2 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


At this opportune moment, so it seemed to 
Mrs. Briggs, a blue coat and brass buttons ap- 
peared on the corner. " Call him, Archibald,” 
she entreated. 

" Much good a policeman will do now,” 
growled the major, beckoning to the man, how- 
ever. 

The policeman strolled up with an air of 
mild and dignified interest. " Anything wrong, 
sir?” 

" Look at this ! ” and the irate major pointed 
to the newly-laid concrete walk whereon had 
been written in large, sprawling letters the 
word pickles . Evidently done while the cem- 
ent was still soft, it now appeared to have been 
chiselled in stone. 

The policeman shook his head and sighed. 
" It ’s them boys, sir. Why, they stole the 
harp off the Conservatory of Music on the next 
square and hung it on Lawyer Grove’s front 
gate.” 

Mr. Aleck smiled. The musical instrument 
referred to was not a harp, but a lyre. 

Observing the smile, the policeman winked 


WHY PICKLES? 


3 


furtively as he added, " But this here’s a shame, 
sir, yet you can’t do nothing with them kids 
on Hallow-e’en.” 

"It is this dreadful neighborhood,” sighed 
Mrs. Briggs, who had come down to hear what 
the policeman had to say, and now drew her 
skirts about her as if to escape contamination. 

" You may say that, ma’am,” the policeman 
answered, admiration in his glance. 

Mr. Aleck stuffed the morning paper in his 
pocket and walked down the street, leaving the 
Briggses to extract what comfort they could 
from the blue-coat. He was not unsympa- 
thetic, but there was nothing he could do to 
mend matters, and he had an engagement down 
town. He was a tall, broad-shouldered young 
man, who wore extremely well-fitting clothes, 
and looked at things out of a pair of frank, 
merry eyes. 

The major’s house was on the corner, and 
Mr. Aleck had walked more than half the long 
square when he saw a small person with a 
school-bag over her shoulder standing before 
the window of the new furniture store. Mr. 


4 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


Aleck slackened his pace and paused at the 
window also. 

The small person was so absorbed in contem- 
plation of some ancient andirons in the shape 
of owls with eyes of yellow glass, that Mr. 
Aleck’s polite good morning quite startled her. 
Her rosy face grew rosier yet, her lips curved 
upward in a smile, her brown eyes just glanced 
at him and then dropped shyly as she replied, 
" Good morning.” 

"Are you interested in furniture?” asked 
Mr. Aleck. 

"Oh, yes,” answered the small person, shift- 
ing her bag to the other shoulder and moving 
away with a backward glance at the owls. 

Mr. Aleck turned also, and they walked 
down street together. 

" I look in the window every morning to see 
if there is anything new, so I can tell Auntie 
Bess when I go home. She goes the other 
way.” 

" And then ” — suggested Mr. Aleck. 

" Then we decide what we are going to have 


WHY PICKLES? 


5 


in our house when Auntie Bess makes her for- 
tune. I think we ’ll have the owls.” 

" Are you going to build ? ” asked Mr. Aleck. 

The small person shook her head. "Not for 
along time,” she said, "for it takes a good 
while to make a fortune, I guess ; but Auntie 
Bess says it is just as well to be cultivating our 
taste.” 

" Very wise, I am sure,” and Mr. Aleck met 
the upward glance of the brown eyes with a 
friendly smile, and asked where she went to 
school. 

The small person pointed out the building in 
the distance. " Auntie Bess goes to school 
too,” she volunteered. " Only it is n’t like my 
school ; she is learning to teach kindergarten. 
Did you ever go to kindergarten ? ” 

"Well, no,” said Mr. Aleck, "but I should 
like to.” 

As this seemed to be a joke, the small per- 
son laughed and said she had never gone to one 
either. 

At this moment two dirty-faced little boys 
passed them. One was seated in a chariot 


6 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


made of a soap-box on wheels, with " Purity ” 
emblazoned on its side ; the other was acting 
as prancing steed. As they went by they 
called out something that sounded strangely 
like " Hello, Pickles ! 99 

" Is that your name? ” Mr. Aleck asked. 

His companion dimpled and blushed as she 
answered, "Not really, but that is what they 
call me.” 

"Very odd,” remarked Mr. Aleck. 

"Well, you see, it happened in this way: 
Grandmamma sent me to the grocery to get a 
bottle of tiny Tims, — do you know what they 
are? little teensy, weensy pickles — and I 
tripped over the dog, and broke the bottle all 
to pieces, and the pickles went everywhere.” 

" Six ways for Sunday ? ” suggested Mr. 
Aleck. 

"Yes, and Jumps saw me, — he is the boy 
who carries the papers, — and he called out, 
'Hello, Pickles ! ’ and everybody heard him, so 
they call me Pickles since then.” 

" Ah, ha ! ” said Mr. Aleck, " and you don’t 
mind?” 


WHY PICKLES? 


7 


" I don’t mind if it amuses them.” The diff- 
nified air of the small person entranced Mr. 
Aleck. 

"Have you a scribe among your friends?” 
he asked. 

This evidently puzzled her, for after a mo- 
ment’s thought she said she did n’t know. 

" Some one who is fond of writing, I mean,” 
he explained. 

But no, she did n’t think of any ; and as they 
had by this time reached the school gate the 
subject could not be pursued any further, much 
to Mr. Aleck’s regret. He lifted his hat and 
bowed as ceremoniously as if she had been a 
great instead of a small person ; and as he 
walked on he said to himself, " Pickles — I am 
beginning now to see why. But who did it — 
Jumps or the chariot racers? I perceive I 
have the instincts of a detective.” 

This was not the first time Mr. Aleck had 
seen Pickles, to call her by the only name he 
knew. Almost every morning for a month, in 
fact ever since he had come to live with his sis- 
ter, he had seen her with her school-bag, and 


8 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


always the same merry, cheery little person. 
Everybody on the block seemed to know her 
and have a smile and a greeting for her. The 
grocery man, the druggist clerk, the round- 
shouldered little tailor, the hardware man, all 
unbent at sight of Pickles. 

His acquaintance with her had begun a week 
before this, over a kitten. The drug-store dog 
— so Pickles explained — had, just for fun, 
chased the kitten, which in its fright took refuge 
in a tree on the sidewalk, and there so high 
above the ground it became more frightened 
than ever, and was crying piteously. When 
Mr. Aleck came by, Pickles stood gazing up at 
the kitten, with a face full of sympathy. 

" What is the trouble? ” Mr. Aleck asked. 

" It can’t get down, and it is so afraid, and I 
can’t reach it,” she answered, pointing to the 
small bundle of gray fur on one of the branches. 

" I think I can reach it,” said Mr. Aleck. 

" If you only would,” cried Pickles, joyfully, 
w and I ’ll hold the dog while you put it over 
the fence.” 

Thus the rescue was made, while Pickles 


WHY PICKLES? 


9 


held on to the drug-store dog with all her 
might. 

"I’m so much obliged,” she said gratefully, 
and Mr. Aleck felt quite as if he had done some 
great and noble deed, her eyes shone so. Ever 
since this he had felt an interest in Pickles. 

"I wonder what her real name is, and where 
she lives,” he said to himself. " There is a 
diversity in our neighborhood that pleases me,” 
he added. 

There were, however, others who were not 
pleased by it, and one of these was his sister, 
Mrs. Briggs. 


CHAPTER IT. 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 

The Briggses lived in a handsome mansion 
of brick and stone on the corner of Dean 
Avenue and State Street. Beyond State Street 
* the avenue was a region of stately homes and 
irreproachable fashion, but below State Street 
it showed, instead of an orderly procession of 
dignified residences, a motley throng of shops 
and dwellings that peered over each other’s 
shoulders and failed to keep step. 

The State-Street end of the square was all it 
should be ; it was down near the middle that 
the invasion of the butcher, the baker, and the 
candlestick maker began, but of course as a 
whole the square was blighted, and although 
Mrs. Briggs lived on the corner and was only 
just without the pale of fashion, she felt the 
truth of the old saying that a miss is as good 
as a mile. 


10 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 


11 


How the colony of shops had happened to 
spring up here, so far from the business part 
of town, no one seemed able satisfactorily to 
explain. One thing was evident, they were 
patronized, for they grew and flourished, some 
of the smaller stores having been replaced by 
larger ones. Over these stores people lived, 
and their children played about in the street, 
and this was one of the worst features of it all, 
in Mrs. Briggs’ opinion. 

The house in which she lived was a substan- 
tial one, built thirty years before by her uncle, 
Alexander Martin, at a time when the location 
seemed as good as any in the city. At his 
death it was left to Mrs. Briggs on condition 
that she make her home there for at least five 
years. If she did not choose to occupy it, it 
was to go to a distant relative who, it was quite 
certain, would. 

Old Mr. Martin had been fond of his home, 
but he knew the market value of a residence 
on that square was small, and he did not like 
to think of the house in which he had lived for 
so long, and upon which he had spent so much 


12 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


time and money, sacrificed. His niece could 
not make up her mind to let such a desirable 
place slip through her fingers, so she lived in 
it and bemoaned her fate meanwhile. 

Mrs. Briggs complained to her next neighbor, 
Mrs. Percival Lawrence, who like herself was 
compelled to live in uncongenial surroundings, 
that she had no sympathy from her brother. 

" Aleck laughs and calls it interesting, and 
say 3 I do not appreciate my privileges. I 
wish Uncle Thomas had left the house to 
him.” 

After the disfiguring of his new walk the 
major was on his wife’s side ; before this he 
had insisted the neighborhood was good enough 
for anybody ; now he declared this was the last 
cent he would spend on improvements. Mrs. 
Briggs was triumphant, but having her husband 
on her side did not alter her uncle’s will. 

Over the new confectionery, which in a 
spirit of compromise had been placed back on 
a line with the dwellings, and had a neat grass 
plat in front of it, were two tiny flats, in one of 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 


13 


which Pickles lived with grandmamma and 
Auntie Bess. 

" Small but sunny,” had been Auntie Bess’s 
comment the day they came to look at it ; 
"which is,” she added, "far better than large 
and gloomy.” 

Pickles thought so too. She had her own 
ideas about things, and unlike Mrs. Briggs she 
was pleased with the neighborhood. 

" I think it is the convenientest neighbor- 
hood I ever heard of,” she announced one 
afternoon from her place among the ferns and 
begonias in one of the front windows. 

Auntie Bess looked up from some kinder- 
garten material over which she was wrink- 
ling her pretty brow and asked, "Do you? 
Why?” 

"Because you can buy anything you want 
here — even bicycles.” 

" Which are th& last things I want,” replied 
Auntie Bess. 

Pickles began to enumerate : " There are 
tailors, and dressmakers, and shoemakers, and 


14 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


dry goods, and furniture, and a plumber, and 
— stove things ” — 

" Hardware,” suggested her aunt. 

"Do they call it that because it is hard? 
How funny ! Is anything called software ? ” 

" Pillows, perhaps,” said Auntie Bess. 

"Not really?” Pickles laughed, then she 
continued : " And a boys’ school, and a kin- 
dergarten, and a grocery, and a drug-store, and 
a laundry, and Jumps, who brings the paper.” 

" The only lack seems to be a bank where 
you can get money for nothing,” remarked 
Auntie Bess. 

Pickles pondered this in silence. She never 
quite liked to hear her aunt speak in that tone. 
Pickles wanted everybody to be happy, and 
sometimes — only sometimes — it seemed to 
her that her pretty young aunt was n’t. 

"Well, Elaine Rutherford, what are you 
looking so sober about ? ” Auntie Bess had 
come behind Pickles, and with a hand on either 
side of the round face turned it back till the 
brown eyes looked into hers upside down. 

" Don’t you know that people have to growl 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 


15 


a little sometimes? It is a charming neigh- 
borhood, and who knows ? Maybe we ’ll have 
the bank some day.” She bent and kissed 
the smiling lips. Such a roly-poly, tilt-nosed 
little girl as this was to have such a stately 
name ! 

Lovely, white-haired grandmamma, with her 
youthful face and gentle voice, generally called 
her Pet ; Auntie Bess had a dozen names for 
her, but of late she had fallen into the neigh- 
borhood fashion of calling her Pickles. Of 
this grandmamma did not at all approve. 

Mrs. Raymond — this was grandmamma’s 
name — felt about the neighborhood something 
as Mrs. Briggs did. She did not quite like to 
have her granddaughter go to school with Tina 
and Lotta, the tailor’s children ; and Jumps, the 
newsboy, who had given Pickles her name, and 
who lived with his mother in the flat above 
them, was to her only a noisy, commonplace, 
rather objectionable boy. The fact that he 
went to school in the morning and delivered 
papers all afternoon, and was bubbling over 
with good-humored energy and ambition, did 


16 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


not make up, in her eyes, for the fact that he 
was often not clean. 

" You forget how dirty the town is,” Auntie 
Bess said, for she liked Jumps. 

Pickles’ dainty grandmother lifted both her 
hands. " Forget, Bess ! I am not likely to for- 
get. Elaine has had on two clean aprons to- 
day, and see her now ; and laundry work 
costs so.” 

Ah, yes, everything cost. No wonder Auntie 
Bess sighed sometimes when she thought of the 
old home where no question of cost ever en- 
tered, until the day when they had found them- 
selves nearly penniless, Pickles, grandmamma, 
and she. Enough was saved when the big 
house with its costly furnishings was sold to 
take care of them for a while, till Auntie Bess 
should finish her course in the training school 
and get a position. 

The old home had been in the country, and 
it was very hard to become used to the noisy, 
dusty city. They tried boarding at first, but it 
did not do at all, and Auntie Bess, who was a 
determined young person, decided that even if 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS . 


IT 


it did cost more, they would take a flat where 
they could be by themselves. She and Pickles 
attended to the moving, for grandmamma had 
lost heart and hope in the dreary boarding- 
house and was almost ill. The handful of 
furniture saved from the sale furnished the 
tiny flat luxuriously, and Mrs. Samuels, Jumps’ 
mother, who came down to offer her assistance, 
declared it was fine enough for a queen. 

Auntie Bess certainly had a way of making 
rooms look cosy and sweet, and Pickles was 
charmed with their new home. The endless 
variety of life on this square pleased her. 
How so demure a little person could become 
acquainted with so many people in so short a 
time was a problem, but she seemed to know 
everybody, from the drug-store dog to the 
grocery cat. 

Pickles was telling Auntie Bess about the 
owl andirons, and how well they would look 
in the big fireplace they meant to have some 
day, when there came a knock at the door and 
a call of : " Here ’s your piper ! ” 

It was Jumps, of course, home from his after- 


18 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


noon round, and Pickles ran to let him in. 
He was a tall, sturdy boy of twelve, with a 
bright face and a pair of twinkling eyes. Over 
his shoulder hung a bag, empty now, with 
"Evening Post” in large letters on it. Jumps 
did not sell papers, he only delivered them to 
regular subscribers. 

" Come in, Jumps, and tell us what is going 
on,” said Auntie Bess. 

"What makes you say piper, Jumps, in- 
stead of paper?” asked Pickles, as she ushered 
him in. 

"Oh, just for fun,” Jumps replied, sitting 
down and gazing about admiringly. " All the 
news that I know is that somebody wrote 
something on Major Briggs’ walk before it 
hardened, and he ’s as mad as the mischief.” 

"Who is Major Briggs?” asked Auntie 
Bess. 

" Lives up at the corner ; ” Jumps made a 
motion of his head in the direction. 

" That is where the gentleman lives who 
walked to school with me to-day,” added 
Pickles. 


DIFFERENT OPINIONS. 


19 


" Big fat man? ” asked Jumps. 

"No, he is n’t fat a bit, but he is tall and 
pleasant.” 

" That ’s Mr. Aleck,” said Jumps ; " major’s 
brother-in-law.” 

"You didn’t tell us what was written on the 
walk,” said Auntie Bess. 

" You ought to walk by and see it ; it is 
Pickles , in great big letters.” 

"It doesn’t mean me, does it?” Pickles 
asked anxiously. 

" Well, I don’t know — looks kind of like it,” 
Jumps confessed. 

" Certainly not,” said grandmamma, with de- 
cision. " Your name is Elaine. Does every 
jar with Pickles on it mean you?” 

" Fact,” remarked Jumps, slapping his knee. 


CHAPTER III. 


PUBLIC SPIRITS. 

" I need some gum tragacanth,” announced 
Auntie Bess. " Let ’s go to the drug-store by 
way of the major’s and see how your name 
looks on his walk. I am glad to know who 
lives in that nice, old-fashioned house.” 

"Mr. Aleck is nice too,” remarked Pickles, 
as she put on her hat. "What is a scribe. 
Auntie Bess ? ” 

"A person who writes, I suppose.” 

" I thought it was out of the Bible,” said 
Pickles, struggling with a hazy memory of her 
Sunday-school lesson. 

"You are thinking of scribes and Pharisees? 
Those scribes were writers. Why do you 
ask?” 

" Because Mr. Aleck wanted to know if any 
of my friends were scribes.” 


PUBLIC SPIRITS. 


21 


" Who would be likely to write your name 
on his front walk, I suppose.” 

"Do you think he meant that? Oh, dear,” 
sighed Pickles, "then he thinks it means me.” 

When they reached the major’s gate she 
gazed sorrowfully at the large letters which 
were plain as print. On a tree near by was 
posted this sign: "$5.00 reward for informa- 
tion leading to the discovery of the person who 
defaced this walk.” 

" I doubt if he ever finds the culprit,” said 
Auntie Bess. 

"I don’t think the public spirits would like 
it,” Pickles remarked, shaking her head. 

A few days before this a gentleman had come 
to school and talked to the children about 
public spirits — so Pickles understood it. 
The somewhat vague idea she received was of 
mysterious beings who presided over city 
streets and did n’t like it if you threw paper 
or banana skins about. Being familiar with 
fairies and ogres, she found no trouble in add- 
ing public spirits to the list. Mischievous 
Auntie Bess did not set her right. 


22 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


Pickles was by nature an orderly little soul, 
and the talk made a deep impression upon her. 
She felt that it was a shame, indeed, when old 
Mr. Bryan worked so hard all day with his 
scraper and brush trying to keep the asphalt 
clean, for people to make his task harder by 
throwing trash about. 

When their purchase had been made and 
Pickles had spoken a friendly word to the 
drug-store dog, an unamiable fox terrier who 
declined to respond, she proposed going back 
by way of the major’s for the sake of being out 
in the air a little longer. Her aunt said she 
believed she liked to see her name in stone. 

When they reached the corner again a small 
boy stood looking through the bars of the gate. 
He had short, light hair that curled a little 
under his cap, and when he turned toward 
them his face was one of angelic sweetness. 
He wore a brace on one of his legs and carried 
a crutch. 

" Hello, Frederick ! ” called Pickles. 

Frederick responded, " Hello ! Did you see 
the circus procession ? ” 


PUBLIC SPIRITS. 


23 


" Yes, it passed our school.” 

" See the elephant ? ” 

Pickles nodded. 

" Don’t you want to see another one ? ” 

" Where is another one ? ” Pickles demanded. 

"At my house.” 

" Oh, Frederick, not sure enough? Elephants 
don’t go into houses.” 

"Well, I mean in the back yard. You come 
and see. It is going to be on exhibition to- 
morrow. Tickets five pins. That ’s cheap.” 

Pickles looked anxiously at her aunt. " Can 
I ? ” she asked. 

"Lotta, and Jim, and Jumps, and all of 
them are coming,” added Frederick. 

" Can I? ” repeated Pickles. 

" May I,” suggested Auntie Bess. " I ’ll see. 
Perhaps just for a few minutes.” 

As they walked on toward home Frederick 
accompanied them, swinging himself along at an 
astonishing pace, kicking a small tin can be- 
fore him. Pickles remarked that it was too 
bad about the major’s walk. 


24 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


" Pshaw,” said Frederick, " it didn’t hurt his 
old walk.” 

" Why, yes, it did, Frederick. You would n’t 
like to have Pickles written on your pavement. 

I don’t like it because people will think it 
means me. The man who talked about public 
spirits said you ought to have pride in your 
neighborhood and keep it looking as nice as 
you can.” 

" If we all did that, what a pleasant city we 
should have ! ” remarked Auntie Bess. 

The more Pickles thought about it the more 
she wondered if Mr. Aleck could have sup- 
posed she had anything to do with the writing 
on the walk, and she resolved to speak to him 
about it. Several days passed, however, and 
no Mr. Aleck. Pickles watched at the window 
till it was time to start for school, and then 
walked as far as the corner with her head over 
her shoulder, but she saw nothing of him. 

The truth was, Mr. Aleck had been out of 
town. On the day of his return he took his 
sister, Mrs. Briggs, out in his new automobile. 
As the air was chilly, they did not go far, and it 


PUBLIC SPIRITS . 


25 


was still early in the afternoon when they 
reached home. Mr. Aleck was helping Mrs. 
Briggs out when he became aware of a pair of 
bright eyes watching him from across the street. 

"To whom are you bowing?” asked his 
sister, as he lifted his hat. 

It was Pickles, who, when she saw she was 
recognized, left her companion, a tall, rosy boy, 
and crossing* over came straight to Mr. Aleck’s 
side. The damp air, which had made Mrs. 
Briggs’ nose red in spite of her furs, had only 
deepened the soft tints in Pickles’ cheeks. It 
gave one a pleasant glow to see her as she ad- 
vanced, holding out her hand. 

" How do you do, Mr. Aleck? I have been 
looking and looking for you,” she said. 

Mrs. Briggs paused in the gateway. 

" I am very glad, indeed, to see you. I have 
been away for a few days,” Mr. Aleck answered, 
shaking hands cordially. 

" You see,” began Pickles, goingto the point 
at once, " I had not heard about the major’s 
walk the day you asked me if I knew any 
scribes. I didn’t know what you meant till I 


26 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


asked Auntie Bess. I have been afraid you 
might think — that ” — 

"That you did it? No, indeed,” said Mr. 
Aleck. 

" Or that I knew who did it — because I 
don’t, and grandmamma does not think it 
means me, for it is n’t my truly name.” 

" Suppose you tell me your real name so I 
can introduce you to my sister,” suggested Mr. 
Aleck, and when Pickles told him he said : 
" Marion, I want to introduce you to Miss 
Elaine Kutherford. This is my sister, Mrs. 
Briggs, Pickles.” 

Now Mrs. Briggs was fond of children when 
they were clean, and she had never seen a 
daintier little maid or one with a more stately 
name. "How do you do, my dear ? and how 
does my brother happen to know you when I 
do not?” she asked. 

"That ’sour secret,” Mr. Aleck answered, 
laughing. " But I want to tell you that Elaine 
has a singular nickname. The children call 
her Pickles, and she is afraid we may think she 
had something to do with the ornamentation of 
our walk.” 



IN NO TIME THEY WERE SPINNING OUT THE AVENUE. 






PUBLIC SPIRITS. 


27 


" My dear ! how dreadful to call you by such 
a name. Of course you had nothing to do 
with it. Won’t you come in for a while and 
see me ? ” 

"No, I thank you. Grandmamma does not 
let me go in places, for then she would n’t know 
where I was. Now I am going with Jumps to 
see Frederick’s elephant. It rained all last 
week, so he couldn’t have his exhibition.” 

"Who is Frederick? ” asked Mr. Aleck. 

" Don’t you know the lame boy ? He lives 
on our square. His aunt keeps the dry-goods 
store and his father is a motorman.” 

" This dreadful neighborhood,” sighed Mrs. 
Briggs. 

Pickles was astonished. " Why, I like it,” 
she said, " it is so convenient and everybody 
is so nice.” 

" Did n’t I say so ? ” Mr. Aleck looked at his 
sister and laughed. 

"Where do you live, dear?” Mrs. Briggs 
asked, paying no attention to him. 

" Over the confectionery, and so does Jumps. 
This is Jumps,” Pickles added, as her com- 
panion approached. " He has a holiday to- 


28 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


day because they are putting in some new 
machinery at the paper office.” 

Mrs. Briggs’ manner wasn’t quite so cordial 
to Jumps ; she remarked that it was chilly and 
she must go in. 

Mr. Aleck observed that Jumps was deeply 
interested in the automobile, and presently he 
proposed a ride around the square. Jumps’ 
eyes shone ; " Gee, but I ’d like it,” he said. 

Pickles forgot to remember, so she explained 
afterwards, that grandmamma might have the 
same objections to automobiles she had to 
visits in strange houses, and in no time they 
were spinning out the avenue, she and Jumps 
and Mr. Aleck. " Around the square ” was 
given a broad interpretation by Mr. Aleck. 

Jumps asked a great many questions, and 
by the time they came to a stop in front of 
Miss Maggie Mackenzie’s Dry Goods and Notion 
Store, he was quite capable of running the 
automobile himself. 

" Won’t you come in and see Frederick’s 
elephant, Mr. Aleck?” asked Pickles. "It is 
only five pins.” 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE ELEPHANT. 

Jumps’ face beamed with joyful importance 
as he descended from the automobile, conscious 
of an admiring and envious audience. 

The curiosity of the hardware man brought 
him out to the pavement, where he stood, his 
hands in his pockets, oblivious to the customer 
who waited impatiently inside. 

Miss Mackenzie’s stock of leisure was never 
so great as that of her neighbor, the hardware 
man ; when she was not waiting on people she 
sewed in the back of the shop, but even she 
now came at the call of Pearl, her one small 
clerk, to look at the wonderful sight of Mr. 
Aleck’s automobile before her door, and Pickles 
and Jumps on terms of perfect equality with 
that elegant young man. 

Mr. Levi, the green grocer, stepping out to 
get the effect of the newly arranged fruit and 
29 


BO 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


vegetables in his window, had his attention 
called to the spectacle by the plumber; the 
young lady in the laundry stood with her nose 
against the glass ; and old Aunt Dinah who 
lived in the alley, happening to pass at this 
moment, exclaimed audibly, " Laws a mercy ! 
ain’t they stylish ? ” 

A very much astonished groom, who had 
been loitering about on the watch for the 
automobile, now came across the street and 
took possession in response to his master’s 
beckoning hand. Then Pickles led the way 
down the narrow passage at the side of Miss 
Maggie’s store. 

" I have n’t any pins ; will nickels do ? ” Mr. 
Aleck asked. 

" Perhaps he ’ll take them, seeing it ’s you,” 
Jumps answered, with a grin. 

Pickles produced from her pocket a paper in 
which ten pins had been carefully stuck. " These 
are for Jumps and me,” she said. " You see, I 
did n’t know you were coming.” 

Miss Maggie’s back yard was somewhat bare, 
with a good deal of brick pavement and very 


THE ELEPHANT . 


31 


little grass. At the far end of it was a low 
shed, three sides of which were enclosed. Over 
the open end some curtains of faded calico 
were draped, and before it on a soap box sat 
Frederick in all the dignity of a born showman. 
Beside him sat another small boy, and in the 
two Mr. Aleck recognized the chariot racer 
and his steed. 

" Frederick, I have brought Mr. Aleck,” 
Pickles announced joyfully. 

Frederick did not seem altogether pleased. 
He eyed Pickles’ companion coldly. "What 
does he want? ” he asked. 

" Why, he wants to see the elephant, and he 
has n’t any pins, so he says, can he pay a 
nickel instead ? ” 

Mr. Aleck rather enjoyed the novelty of 
having some one speak for him. 

It was plain that the mention of a nickel 
altered the case. "Well,” said Frederick, "he 
may see it.” He spoke condescendingly, how- 
ever. 

" Ask him if he always has a soap box for a 
throne,” said Mr. Aleck to Pickles. 


32 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


" ’T ain’t a throne, it ’s a ticket office,” Fred- 
erick announced scornfully. 

" Can’t we go in again, Frederick? We have 
used up all our pins.” 

This appeal came from a little girl with a 
round face and ear-rings and a yellow hraid. 
She had a baby in her arms, wrapped in a 
shawl, and beside her stood a younger girl 
almost the counterpart of herself. 

" I have let you and Tina in about ten times, 
and you can’t go any more,” Frederick de- 
clared. 

"Pooh, I can get all the pins I want,” said 
another girl who had curls and an airy manner. 

" Then, Alma, I should think you would take 
Lotta and Tina in,” observed Pickles, gravely. 

Mr. Aleck put his hand in his pocket and 
announced that he had a number of nickels and 
would pay for the crowd, so the matter was 
settled, and Otto, Frederick’s partner, drew 
aside the curtain and admitted them to the 
presence of the elephant. 

Mr. Aleck could n’t have told what he ex- 
pected to see, but certainly nothing quite so 


THE ELEPHANT . 


33 


much like a baby elephant as the object before 
him. 

The light was dim, for the short afternoon 
was nearing its end, and in solemn silence the 
procession moved around Frederick’s master- 
piece. Pickles was the first to speak. "Is n’t 
it marbellous ? ” she exclaimed. 

" It ’s nothing but an old sugar barrel,” said 
Alma, scornfully. 

"I don’t care, it looks a heap like an 
elephant. The baby was most scared to death 
the first time she seen it,” said Lotta. 

Now Mr. Aleck began to laugh, and he 
laughed and laughed until the rest caught the 
infection and laughed too, without knowing 
exactly what it was about. He had discovered 
how the elephant was made, and, like Pickles, 
he thought it marvellous. 

Frederick had placed two carpenter’s horses 
side by side, and upon these had laid a large 
sugar barrel. Over this he had draped some 
rubber coats, and with a piece of rubber hose, 
begged from the plumber, he had constructed 
the elephant’s trunk. 


34 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


Frederick did not approve of so much 
laughter. 

" I don’t think it is so awful funny,” he said, 
entering the show room. 

" It is the best elephant I ever saw,” Mr. 
Aleck hastened to assure him. " It would take 
the prize anywhere. How did you happen to 
think of it ? ” 

It was altogether beyond Frederick’s powers 
to tell how he thought of things. That his 
brain was busy with all sorts of contrivances 
from morning till night, his long-suffering aunt 
could testify. 

" Will it be on exhibition to-morrow? I’d 
like to bring my brother-in-law to see it,” said 
Mr. Aleck. 

" ’Tis n’t going to be on exhibition any more,” 
Frederick declared solemnly. 

" Why, Frederick, you ’d let Major Briggs 
see it, would n’t you?” asked Jumps. 

But, no, Frederick was not to be persuaded. 

Miss Maggie’s thimble was heard to rap 
smartly on the window-pane. " Frederick,” 
she called, " come in to supper.” 


THE ELEPHANT. 


35 


" Bless me ! Is it supper time? ” Mr. Aleck 
exclaimed, and then it occurred to him that 
perhaps Miss Maggie did not care to have 
strangers in her hack yard. " I ought to have 
asked her permission,” he said to Pickles as 
they left. 

"I wonder why Frederick didn’t want the 
major to see his elephant,” said Jumps, medi- 
tatively, adding, " He ’s a smart little kid ! ” 

" He is a remarkably pretty child, but not 
very friendly. He is evidently an odd genius,” 
Mr. Aleck replied. 

As they walked home Pickles called his 
attention to some of the conveniences of the 
neighborhood. There was the clock in the 
tailor’s shop, placed just where you could see 
it easily from the street, and the slot machine 
at the drug-store door where you could find 
out your true weight for a penny. She also 
explained that Lotta and Tina and Otto were 
the tailor’s children, and Alma the grand- 
daughter of the grocer. In fact, when Mr. 
Aleck said good-by to Pickles and Jumps he felt 


36 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


he had made great strides in his acquaintance 
with the neighborhood. 

At his own gate he met Phyllis and Mabel 
Lawrence returning from dancing school with 
a maid. They carried their slipper bags on 
their arms, and their white dresses showed 
beneath their long coats. Mr. Aleck, feeling 
neighborly, stopped to speak to them. 

Mabel with her curls and her society manner 
reminded him of Alma ; of the two, Phyllis 
was his favorite. She was merry and child- 
like. He told them about the elephant and 
how his new friend Pickles had taken him to 
see it. Phyllis was interested, but Mabel was 
scornful. 

" I wish I could see it. It must have been 
funny. And what is Pickles' real name?” 
asked Phyllis. 

"Now, Phyllis, you know mamma would not 
let us have anything to do with those children ; 
she says it is bad enough to have to live in 
such a neighborhood,” Mabel said, loftily. 

" It is a pity,” answered Mr. Aleck, " for I 


THE ELEPHANT. 


37 


don’t believe there is a nicer little girl in the 
world than Pickles.” 

This was an extravagant assertion, for, all 
told, Mr. Aleck did n’t know more than a dozen 
little girls. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE BIRD IN THE GLOBE. 

Auntie Bess and Pickles had been shopping 
and were returning on the street car late in the 
afternoon. Pickles carried a paper bag in 
which was a red Tam for every-day wear, and 
about every two minutes she peeped in to see 
if it were safe. 

Across the aisle sat a stout gentleman who 
smiled at Pickles in a friendly way when she 
caught his eye. She wore her new velvet hat 
copied by Auntie Bess from one in Kohlers’, 
and made of material taken from the treasure 
trunk. This trunk was filled with what Auntie 
Bess called " relics of ancient splendor.” A 
puzzling phrase to Pickles, who saw only old 
silk dresses and pieces of velvet and lace. She 
liked the hat, however, and Auntie Bess, seeing 
how becoming it was to the rosy face, could n’t 
help feeling proud of her handiwork. She ob- 
38 


THE BIRD IN THE GLOBE. 


39 


served the stout gentleman’s admiring glances 
and was pleased, never dreaming that Pickles’ 
+ companion came in for a share of them. 

The stout gentleman rang the bell and got 
off the car when they did, turning in the same 
direction. 

It was almost dark, and the electric lights 
were already out up and down the street. 
Auntie Bess and Pickles clasped hands and 
hurried on merrily till they reached the corner. 
Here something seemed to be the matter, for a 
small crowd had gathered and everybody was 
looking up at the electric light. The stout 
gentleman stopped and so did they, and looked 
up at the light too. Something dark was flut- 
tering around inside the globe. 

" Oh, what is it?” cried Pickles, anxiously. 

"It ’s a bird,” answered Frederick, who was 
one of the crowd. 

"What is the trouble?” asked the stout 
gentleman, who had not heard Frederick. 

Pickles answered, " A bird — one of our 
birds is inside the globe. Oh, I am so sorry ! 
Can’t it get out?” 


40 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


"One of your birds, did you say? Very 

astonishing ! How did it get out ? ” exclaimed 

the gentleman. 

© 

Pickles looked bewildered. " It did n’t get 
out, it ’s in.” 

"He thought, dearie, you meant the bird 
belonged to you,” explained her aunt. 

"Oh, no, I meant one of our sparrows — 
that live on our square,” added Pickles. 

"It is dreadful to see the poor thing. It 
must have flown in before the light was turned 
on and now is too frightened to find its way 
out. Can’t something be done ? ” Auntie Bess 
asked this of everybody in general. 

" Here comes Jumps,” cried Pickles. " He ’ll 
help. Oh, Jumps, one of our birds is caught 
in the electric light. Can’t you get it out? ” 

"We might telephone to the power-house for 
a man,” said Auntie Bess. 

"You could climb the post and let the light 
down, Jumps,” suggested Frederick. 

" All right,” said Jumps. " Who ’ll boost? ” 

There were several volunteers, and in the 
meantime the crowd increased. It seemed a 


THE BIRD IN THE GLOBE. 


41 


simple enough thing to climb the eight or ten 
feet of pole to where the rope on which the 
light swung was fastened, but something was 
wrong w T ith the pulley above ; although Jumps 
unwound the rope the light did not move. 

”1 ’ll have to climb to the top,” said Jumps, 
all his determination aroused. 

"Look out, boy,” called the stout gentle- 
man, "you’ll kill yourself.” 

" No, he won’t ! ” cried another boy, pushing 
his way through the crowd. " Go it, Jumps, 
I ’ll help you ! ” 

" That is Alma’s brother Jim,” said Pickles. 

Carefully Jumps began to make his way up 
the spiked pole ; the people below watched 
anxiously. Jim followed him. In the excite- 
ment Auntie Bess and the stout gentleman 
grew friendly. 

" I can’t bear to watch him,” she said, cover- 
ing her eyes with her hand. 

"He is a brave boy, and all for a bird,” the 
gentleman remarked. 

" And a good boy, too,” said Auntie Bess, 


42 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


and she told how industrious he was and how 
he tried to help his mother. 

It did indeed seem a dangerous feat, climb- 
ing that tall pole, but Jumps had a steady head 
and Jim just below was cheering him on. 

" He is up as high as the house now,” said 
Pickles, when Jumps was seen to pause. He 
was within reach of the pulley. 

" Can you start her? ” called Jim. 

"Here goes,” answered Jumps. "Let her 
down easy.” 

Slowly the light swung down, flickering and 
growing dim as it descended. 

" Somebody down there tip it and let the 
bird out,” ordered Jim. 

There was a little hesitation among the 
crowd. Was it hot? Was there any danger 
from the wires? Then Auntie Bess saying, 
" Stay here, Pickles,” ran forward, and before 
anybody knew what she was going to do she 
had tipped the globe with one hand and with 
the other helped the almost exhausted bird to 
freedom. As it fluttered feebly away to the 
branches of the nearest tree a shout went up. 


THE BIRD IN THE GLOBE . 


43 


"My dear young lady,” exclaimed the stout 
gentleman, whom Pickles had by this time dis- 
covered was Major Briggs, "that was admi- 
rably done.” 

" It was very easy,” said Auntie Bess, blush- 
ing and laughing. " And are n’t you glad, 
Pickles, that the bird is out? ” she added. 

The two boys had now hauled the light back 
to its place and were on the ground once more. 
The crowd of vehicles and people began to 
disperse. 

"Jumps, I am proud of you,” cried Auntie 
Bess, " and of Jim, too.” 

"I want to shake hands with you. It was a 
fine thing,” said the major. 

" I did n’t do any more than Miss Bess,” 
declared Jumps, greatly abashed. 

" Don’t be silly,” said that young lady. 
" Come and tell your mother about it,” and she 
kept her hand on his arm as they walked 
toward home. 

Jumps asked no higher reward. This Auntie 
Bess of Pickles’ was to him the most perfect of 
human beings. Since she had become his 


44 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


neighbor he had actually begun to think about 
his appearance. To ride in Mr. Aleck’s auto- 
mobile was an honor, but to walk down street 
with Miss Kaymond’s friendly clasp on his arm 
was one infinitely greater. 

The Briggses had guests at dinner, and in the 
course of the evening the major related the 
incident of the bird. 

" I assure you it was thrilling, positively 
thrilling,” he declared, " and all for one poor 
bird. I don’t know when I have seen a more 
charming young lady than the one who finally 
released it. She had a little girl with her 
whom she called by a singular name.” 

" It must have been my friend Pickles,” said 
Mr. Aleck. 

" She seemed to have peculiar ideas too,” 
continued the major. " She kept calling it our 
bird, and I supposed of course it was a pet of 
her own, but, bless you ! when I asked her, she 
said she meant one of the sparrows that live on 
our square. How she knew where it lived is 
more than I can tell.” 

" She gave it the benefit of the doubt,” said 


THE BIRD IN THE GLOBE . 


45 


Mr. Aleck, laughing. " Pickles is very loyal 
to our square.” Then he told about the public 
spirits of whom he had recently heard as he 
walked to school with her. 

Everybody was amused. Among the guests 
was the president of the Good Order Club, re- 
cently organized in the city, who, although he 
laughed with the rest, added earnestly, " If 
only we had more of that feeling we should not 
need to get up reform clubs. Loyalty to one’s 
own environment, to city or neighborhood, that 
is where we need to begin.” 

Mr. Aleck had been urged to join the Good 
Order Club, and had declined. He had not 
lived in the city long and it did not interest 
him, but now the thought of the public spirits 
took possession of him. The unconscious loy- 
alty of his small friend made him ashamed of 
his indifference, and he surprised the president 
of the new society the next day by sending in 
an application for membership accompanied by 
a generous subscription. 

As for the major, he did not cease to talk of 
the bravery of Jumps and Jim, and the charms 


46 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


of Pickles and Auntie Bess. It really required 
an effort on his part to remember to be angry 
about the defacement of his walk. Mrs. Briggs 
saw him going back to his original opinion of 
the neighborhood — as good enough for any- 
body. 

" I wish you would call on Miss What’s-her- 
name,” he said to his wife more than once. 

" Archibald, you are absurd,” Mrs. Briggs 
declared indignantly. "You are more easily 
taken in by a pretty face than any one I know. 
You are even ignorant of the name of this per- 
son upon whom you wish me to call. The 
next thing you will be insisting that I shall 
patronize Miss Maggie’s dry-goods store and 
have my new suit made by the tailor across 
the street.” 

" I have no doubt you might do worse,” the 
major insisted stoutly. 

” I should not be surprised,” said Mrs. 
Briggs, changing the subject slightly, " if it 
turns out that this Jimps or Jumps or what- 
ever you call him was the very one who spoiled 
your walk.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


AN ACCIDENT. 

"Frederick Mackenzie, did you break 
my screw-driver? Here I have been looking 
everywhere for it, only to find it at last on the 
cellar steps all broken and rusty.” Miss 
Maggie’s voice showed a good deal of feeling. 

Frederick, who sat by the stove looking at 
the pictures in his reader, replied, without lift- 
ing his eyes : " You said I could have it.” 

"I didn’t say you could break it, did I? 
This is the last time I ’ll let you have anything 
of mine. First it is the oil can and then the 
scissors. I can’t keep a thing. And now my 
screw-driver is gone just when I need it. 
You ’ll have to go to Bowser’s and get me 
one, and mind you, I am going to tell your 
father on you.” 

Jumps, who had come in to purchase some 
thread for his mother, overheard this conversa- 
47 


48 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


tion, and he suddenly became so absorbed in 

thought that Pearl had to ask him twice what 
© 

he wanted. Even then for a minute he stared 
at her blankly and could n’t remember. 

Jumps had had his suspicions before, now 
he saw them confirmed. While Pearl wrapped 
up the spools and made change he was think- 
ing : " Yes, it was Hallow-e’en, because I 
remember Mr. Brown said to me, ' Now don’t 
get into mischief to-night, Jumps.’ And when 
I came home the lights were just coming out, 
and I passed Frederick rattling something 
along the iron fence. I ’m sure it was the 
screw-driver, and I ’ll bet a dozen cookies he 
did the writing on the major’s walk with it. 
He is always writing and copying things.” 

Jumps remembered, too, the advertisement 
hanging in the grocery — a picture of a small 
girl inscribing on a blackboard the legend, " Eat 
Arnold’s Pickles.” Had n’t he seen Frederick 
copying it on a piece of wrapping paper ? 

Miss Maggie continued to express her mind 
until her nephew found his cap and started for 
the door. Jumps was waiting for him. 



"SAY, JUMPS, ARE YOU GOING TO TELL?” 












































































































AN ACCIDENT. 


49 


" I know who wrote on the major’s walk,” 
he said as they reached the street. 

Frederick looked at him warily. " Are you 
going to tell? ” he asked. 

Jumps saw an opportunity for some teasing. 
" Guess I ’ll have to. I told Mr. Aleck I ’d 
try to find out, and then you see Pickles is 
worried about it, for fear they might think she 
did it.” 

"I bet you don’t know,” said Frederick, 
growing braver. "And anyhow, Pickles 
could n’t do it. She can’t write hardly at all.” 

" Oh, I know all right that she did n’t do 
it. She does n’t go around copying signs 
in grocery stores. She did n’t borrow Miss 
Maofofie’s screw-driver either, and break it on 

uu 

the major’s walk.” 

"I did n’t break it on the walk. It was on 
the fence,” said Frederick, off his guard. 

" But you wrote with it all the same,” cried 
Jumps, laughing. 

" Say, Jumps, are you going to tell ? ” 

" Never mind, you ’ll see.” 

"Jumps, what do you suppose the major 


50 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


would do to the fellow that did it?” Freder- 
ick’s complacency was breaking down. 

"I don’t know — send him to jail for a while, 
I reckon.” 

Frederick pondered this standing in the door 
of the hardware shop. " Say, Jumps,” he 
began, and his tone was humble, " don’t tell.” 

" I ’ll think about it,” said Jumps, and ran 
away laughing. 

Would Jumps tell? Frederick wondered, as 
he carried home the screw-driver. Jumps had 
always been good to him. But if he told, the 
major would give him five dollars. That was 
a great deal of money. Jumps wanted a new 
bicycle, he had heard him say so. Frederick 
began to be unhappy. 

After delivering up the screw-driver he did 
not seek^ the society of Otto, as usual, but 
instead hung about the shop watching Pearl, 
who was unpacking and placing on the shelves 
some gay flannelettes. There was a corner 
under the counter where he could hide if he 
saw a policeman coming. He did n’t think 
Pearl would tell on him. Having this arranged 


AN ACCIDENT . 


51 


he felt easier and began to comment on the 
goods. His taste and Pearl’s were not alike, 
and a lively argument began. 

It was destined to be an unlucky day for 
Frederick. Giving a scornful push to a roll 
that Pearl called lovely, he sent it down on 
some bottles of perfume which stood on the 
counter, knocking two of them off on the floor 
where, from their shattered remains, rose an 
overpowering fragrance. 

" Frederick ’s done broke two of your cologne 
bottles, Miss Maggie,” called Pearl. 

Miss Maggie was there before Frederick had 
time to escape. 

" I did n’t mean to,” he cried. 

His aunt was white with anger. She took 
him by the arm. "You walk yourself out of 
this place, and don’t you dare come in again 
to-day ; ” and opening the door she pushed him 
out. 

" If you had been minding your business it 
would n’t have happened,” Frederick heard her 
say to Pearl as the door closed. It opened 
again a moment later and his cap fell at his 


52 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


feet. He put it on. Was that a policeman 
coming this way? No, it was n’t after all. 

The November day was cold. Frederick 
walked on toward the grocery. Sometimes he 
was allowed to spend an hour or two there 
spelling out advertisements and labels. 

The first person he saw when he went in 
was Pickles talking to the grocery cat, while 
Auntie Bess gave an order to the grocery man. 
She smiled brightly and Frederick’s sinking 
heart was cheered. He liked Pickles. 

"Do look at Joe, isn’t he funny?” said 
Pickles. 

Joe was a large striped cat, with a benevo- 
lent face and the small ears of the expert 
mouser. He usually sat on one of the stools 
in front of the butcher’s table where he watched 
the customers being served and never once 
offered to touch the meat himself. 

The funniest thing about him, Pickles 
thought, was his fondness for being twirled. 
He would sit erect with great gravity while the 
top of the stool was sent spinning around, and 


AN ACCIDENT. 


53 


when it came to a standstill he would arch his 
back and purr loudly. 

Pickles adored him and was never ready to 
leave the grocery when Joe was there. " You 
give him some meat sometimes, don’t you?” 
she asked the butcher. 

" Don’t you be afraid ; he gets enough. See 
what a good coat he has. That ’s a sign he 
is well fed.” 

Pickles stroked the shining back. "He is 

© 

getting ready for cold weather,” she said. 

Frederick looked on, rather envying Joe. 

"Well, dearie, are you ready to go?” It 
was Auntie Bess, who put her arm around 
Pickles and gave her a little hug. 

Pickles was so used to caresses it is probable 
she did not notice it, but Frederick saw it, and 
it reminded him that he was an outcast. No- 
body wanted him. Jumps was going to tell 
on him and he would be sent to jail. 

Miss Raymond smiled on him and said, 
"How do you, Frederick? How is the ele- 
phant ? ” Then she and Pickles left the 
store. 


54 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


Frederick followed gloomily. Mr. Levi did 
not seem anxious for his society. Saturday 
morning was a busy time. Aimlessly he 
swung himself along. He decided he would 
run away somewhere, and then Aunt Maggie 
would be sorry she had turned him out when 
he did n’t come back. 

He went as far as the corner and turned on 
the cross street. A piece of coal lay on the 
pavement, and seeing it he began to kick it 
before him as was his habit. He became 
deeply absorbed in this pastime. At the next 
crossing a vigorous kick sent the coal out into 
the middle of the street crowded with wagons 
and carriages. Frederick had not a thought 
beyond that bit of coal. He plunged after it. 
The driver of a coal cart yelled at him, some- 
body called, "Look out!” Frederick awoke 
to a sudden, bewildering sense of danger. He 
hesitated, turned, and then something seemed 
to seize him and whirl him away — away — 

Then he seemed to be waking up out of a 
dream. A policeman was coming to take him 
to jail, when Auntie Bess appeared and put her 


AN ACCIDENT . 


55 


arm around him calling him "Dearie,” and the 
policeman faded away. Frederick opened his 
eyes and looked into the kindest, brightest 
face. Not like Auntie Bess, and yet some- 
thing like her too. A gentle, firm voice said, 
" Drink this,” and Frederick obediently drank 
something from a cup, and looked up at the 
face again. 

It smiled on him now and the voice said, 
" That is right ; ” adding, " He is awake, 
doctor.” 

At this a gentleman came to the bedside. 
"He’ll do now,” he said. 

Frederick tried to remember where he had 
been when he went to sleep, but he could n’t. 
The lady with the face that made him think of 
Auntie Bess wore a blue dress and a long white 
apron. She looked very, very clean ; so did 
the bed on which he lay ; so did everything. 
But why was he lying there ? Why could n’t 
he get up when he tried? What was the 
matter with his arm ? There were three other 
beds in the room, and in the one across from 
his own some one seemed to be lying. The 


56 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


sunshine came in at the window where the lady 
and the doctor stood talking together. Pres- 
ently the lady moved away. 

" Don’t go,” said Frederick. 

She turned and smiled, "I’ll be back in a 
minute, dearie.” 

The doctor came and sat down beside him, 
and told him he had been hurt and would have 
to lie still for a while. Then he asked him his 
name. As Frederick told it, it all came back 
to him — the broken bottles, Aunt Maggie’s 
anger, and the coal he tried to kick across the 
street. 

" Where am I? ” he asked. 

"At the Children’s Hospital. Don’t you 
think it is a nice place?” 

Frederick knew little about hospitals, but 
with one thing he was familiar. " Did I come 
in the animalance f” he asked, eagerly. 

"In the ambulance?” asked the doctor, 
smiling ; " no, a lady sent you here in her 
carriage.” 

Frederick was disappointed. To ride in the 
ambulance seemed to him a great honor. Tears 


AN ACCIDENT. 


57 


rose to his eyes. Then Miss Emerson came — 
this was what the doctor called her — and 
leaned over him and laid a soft hand on his 
forehead. 

"His name is Frederick Mackenzie, and he 
lives at 1035 Dean Avenue,” said the doctor. 
This was what Frederick heard as he drifted 
off to sleep : "I promised Mrs. Briggs I would 
telephone her at once, as soon as we found out 
about him.” 

Had Jumps told the major? What had 
Mrs. Briggs to do with it? 


CHAPTER Vn. 

THE NEWS. 

Mrs. Briggs lay in a darkened room with a 
blinding headache, the cause of which was 
Frederick’s accident. It had happened that as 
he stepped oft" the curbstone into the crowded 
street in pursuit of the piece of coal Mrs. 
Briggs’ brougham turned the corner. For a 
second a wagon hid Frederick from the view of 
her driver, who pulled back his horses just too 
late. There was a frightened cry, a small 
crutch flew in one direction, a shabby cap in 
another, and everything at the corner came to 
a standstill, even before the reason for it was 
known. 

Mrs. Briggs, looking out to see what the 
matter was, sank back faint at sight of the 
golden head of the child as some one lifted him 
from the street. 


58 


THE NEWS. 


59 


He was carried into a drug-store, and, although 
it was so near his home, no one recognized him. 
The doctor who was hurriedly summoned in- 
sisted upon his being taken at once to the hos- 
pital, and Mrs. Briggs, who had followed into 
the store, eagerly proffered her carriage. 

Mrs. Briggs herself walked home in a sad 
state of mind. Suppose the child should die ! 
The thought was terrible, although she was 
convinced that Matthew had not been to blame. 
Such a pretty child too, and probably his 
mother was worrying about him at that minute, 
little guessing what had happened. 

The more she dwelt upon it the more dis- 
tressed she became. She could not forget the 
still, appealing little face, and the crutch some 
one had picked up added to the pathos. In 
this state the major found her when he came 
home to lunch. In vain he tried to console 
her, and the result of it all was the headache 
and a visit from the doctor. 

The telephone message from the hospital 
came in the middle of the afternoon, and was 
reassuring. Frederick’s injuries were not so 


60 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


serious as had been feared. He had recovered 
consciousness and told his name. 

" Frederick Mackenzie? Why, it must be 
my friend of the elephant,” Mr. Aleck ex- 
claimed when he had heard the story. 

" Aleck, I believe you know everybody,” 
said his sister from the couch, where she lay 
white and exhausted. " I want you to go at 
once for me to his mother and say — Oh dear, 
what can I say ? ” 

" Now don’t excite yourself, Marion,” 
begged the major, as his wife pressed her 
handkerchief to her eyes. 

"If it is our Frederick, I believe he hasn’t 
any mother,” said Mr. Aleck ; " but I will go 
over to see his aunt at once. Frederick is one 
of your neighbors, Marion.” 

Pickles was putting her dolls to bed when 
Jumps came in with the news of the accident. 

" Poor little boy ! ” exclaimed Auntie Bess. 
" It must have happened soon after we saw him 
in the grocery.” 

" Will they be good to him at the hospital? ” 
asked Pickles. 


THE NEWS. 


61 


"I saw Miss Maggie, and she had just been 
there. She says it is a first-rate place. She 
wanted to bring him home, but they would n’t 
let her. Frederick was asleep, so she could n’t 
speak to him. Miss Maggie feels awful bad 
because she was mad at Frederick this morning;. 
I heard her just giving it to him,” Jumps con- 
cluded. 

" It is the best place in the world for him,” 
said Auntie Bess. 

" Mr. Aleck came over and told Miss Maggie 
his sister was all upset about it, and that she 
and the major would do everything for Fred- 
erick. Mr. Levi says he reckons the Briggses 
are afraid Frederick’s father will sue them.” 

The news of the accident created much ex- 
citement in the neighborhood. The dry-goods 
store was besieged by inquirers, most of whom 
had some story to tell of Frederick’s clever- 
ness. 

Miss Maggie was tearful. She had a kind 
heart in spite of her sharp tongue, and, to use 
her own words, she had never laid hands on 
her nephew ; but now she could n’t forget that 


62 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


she had turned him out. Aside from this, she 
enjoyed the notoriety of the occasion. She 
was greatly pleased at Mr. Aleck’s call, al- 
though she acknowledged it was no more than 
right for the Briggses to do all they could for 
Frederick. 

The girls, Lotta, and Tina, and Alma, dis- 
cussed the accident with the deepest interest, 
each telling what she had heard, and what she 
knew about the hospital ; but Otto, Frederick’s 
partner, said nothing. As he listened he was 
full of awe at the fate of his playmate. In his 
thought the hospital stood next to the jail. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE HOSPITAL. 

" Do you know that day after to-morrow 
will be Thanksgiving ? ” asked Pickles of Mr. 
Aleck as they walked down the street together 
one morning about two weeks after Frederick’s 
accident. 

" Why, so it is ! How are you going to cele- 
brate ? ” 

” I am going to church with grandmamma in 
the morning, and in the afternoon Auntie Bess 
and I are going to see Frederick. They let 
him have company now.” 

" And I suppose you will have turkey for 
dinner,” said Mr. Aleck. 

" I guess so. Why do people always have 
turkey on Thanksgiving? ” asked Pickles. 

"I really don’t know. Could you suggest 
anything better? 

Pickles thought a moment. " There are Ply- 
63 


64 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


mouth Bock chickens,” she said. "Wouldn’t 
they be more ” — 

" Appropriate ? That ’s a good idea, of 
course they would. I ’ll suggest it to Mrs. 
Briggs,” Mr. Aleck said, laughing. 

"We are to have an entertainment at our 
school to-morrow and Lotta is going to say, 

' The breaking waves dashed high ! ’ Have you 
ever heard it ? ” 

Mr. Aleck thought he had, long ago. 

Pickles looked forward to her visit to the 
hospital eagerly. Besides wishing to see Fred- 
erick she was curious to know what a hospital 
was like, and she was a little disappointed 
when she followed Auntie Bess in at the gate 
of what seemed just an ordinary house with a 
garden at one side. If it had not been for the 
plate on the door one would never have guessed 
it was the Children’s Hospital. Inside there 
was n’t much furniture, the walls and floors 
were bare, except for a few rugs and pictures 
in the reception room where they waited. By 
and by a nurse in a white apron and cap came 
and took them up-stairs. 


THE HOSPITAL. 


65 


Auntie Bess asked how Frederick was get- 
ting on, and the nurse said he was doing very 
well indeed, that the doctor hoped while he 
was there to help his weak ankle. Then she 
laughed and said Frederick was a mischief, 
and nobody but Miss Emerson could manage 
him. She told how much he liked a hot water 
bag and how one day when his temperature 
was being taken he had slyly put the bag 
against the thermometer while the nurse’s 
back was turned. The nurse, who was young 
and inexperienced, had gone to Miss Emerson 
in alarm to report an unheard-of degree of 
fever. 

Pickles thought this was very funny. It 
had not been long since she had measles, and 
she knew all about having one’s temperature 
taken. 

The nurse showed them into a bright room 
where there were four beds, and on one of 
these lay Frederick who, without doubt, was a 
show patient with his golden curls and big 
brown eyes. His offhand, blunt manners were 
something of a shock. 


66 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


" Hello, Pickles,” lie cried, and seemed de- 
lighted to see her and Auntie Bess. 

" We are so glad you are getting well, Fred- 
erick,” said Pickles, standing beside him. "Do 
you like the hospital ? ” As she looked around 
the room she caught the eye of a little black- 
haired girl in the bed opposite Frederick’s. 

Frederick nodded. "It’s a heap nicer 
than home,” he said with candor. " Miss 
Emerson and the doctor are going to make my 
leg well.” With an air of much importance he 
now took from under his pillow a piece of 
a newspaper. "Did you see this?” he asked, 
handing it to Miss Raymond. 

Auntie Bess unfolded it and saw the ac- 
count of his accident, which had been pub- 
lished in the " Evening Post ” the day it 
occurred. 

" Do you see my name ? ” Frederick asked 
eagerly, adding, " Gee, but I ’m proud of 
that ! ” 

Auntie Bess laughed and said she had read it 
before. Frederick’s manner was one of calm 
superiority over all who had not been run over 



"HELLO, PICKLES," HE CRIED. 













THE HOSPITAL . 


67 


and taken to the hospital and had their names 
in the paper. 

"Jumps brought it to me,” Frederick ex- 
plained. 

"Did you know Jumps had broken his 
wheel ? ” asked Pickles. " He has to go on 
foot now. Is n’t it too bad? ” 

" Can’t he get a new one ? ” 

" Not till he saves up some money. I wish 
I had a lot of money ; I’d give him a bicycle,” 
said Pickles. " I have brought you a picture- 
book, Frederick,” she added. 

Frederick accepted it with condescension. 
"I have a heap of picture-books, and flowers, 
and things to eat,” he explained. "Mrs. 
Briggs brings me something most every day.” 

" I should think, then, you would share them 
with the little girl over there,” suggested 
Auntie Bess. 

" That ’s Mamie,” Frederick announced by 
way of introduction. " I did give you some of 
my things, did n’t I, Mamie ? ” 

The black head nodded. Pickles went over 
to speak to Mamie. 


68 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


She lay flat on her back and could n’t move 
as Frederick did. From the foot of her bed 
hung a heavy weight. The nurse told them 
afterwards that she had something the matter 
with her spine. 

Mamie seemed shy, but she smiled at Pickles, 
and was evidently pleased to see her. 

And now another visitor was ushered in, 
who was, of all persons, Mr. Aleck ! He 
shook hands with Frederick, and when he saw 
Auntie Bess, who sat beside the bed, he looked 
very much surprised. 

"Why, Miss Raymond,” he said, "this is an 
unexpected pleasure. I did n’t know you were 
in this part of the country.” 

Auntie Bess shook hands with him and ex- 
plained that she lived here ; and she called him 
Mr. Martin. 

Pickles crossed the room in surprise. "I 
didn’t know you knew Auntie Bess, Mr. 
Aleck,” she said. 

" Why, Pickles, is that you ? I did n’t know 
it myself. Why did you not tell me who 
Auntie Bess was ? ” 


THE HOSPITAL. 


69 


Pickles opened her eyes. " I thought every- 
body knew,” she said. 

Her aunt laughed. " I am sure I did not 
guess who Mr. Aleck was until the other day 
when I saw him £oin<£ into Miss Mao-fde’s.” 

O O DO 

Mr. Aleck seemed to have forgotten Fred- 
erick, but that young man called himself to 
notice by bringing forth the paper and insist- 
ing upon pointing out his name. Mr. Aleck 
was properly impressed, and then he produced 
a transparent slate from his overcoat pocket. 

"Why, it is like Christmas, Frederick,” 
Pickles remarked, feeling that it might be 
rather pleasant to be in a hospital and have 
presents brought to you every day. 

Auntie Bess said she and Pickles must go, 
and Mr. Aleck said he must too, so they 
walked home together. 

Mr. Aleck asked Pickles if she had Ply- 
mouth Rock chickens for dinner, and Pickles 
replied that Auntie Bess had already ordered 
the turkey. 

Then Mr. Aleck and Auntie Bess began to 
talk about things of which Pickles knew noth- 


TO 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


ing. Of a house party where they had met 
several years before, and of people and places 
in which they seemed to have a common in- 
terest. Pickles enjoyed it as much as if she 
understood, for Auntie Bess looked so very 
pretty, and smiled so brightly, and Mr. Aleck 
seemed to like to look at her, all of which 
pleased her adoring little niece. 

Just before they reached home Mr. Aleck 
asked Pickles if she had heard anything more 
about public spirits. 

She answered, "No,” adding, " We are hav- 
ing talks on human nature now.” 

Mr. Aleck looked puzzled, and said that 
was a profound subject. 

Auntie Bess then explained that it was 
Pickles’ name for physiology. 

" It is about skeletons and muscles, you 
know,” Pickles added. 

Mr. Aleck went off, lauMiina;. 

" Don’t you remember my telling you about 
a Miss Raymond whom I met at the Lawtons’ 
three years ago ? ” Mr. Aleck asked his sister 
that evening. 


THE HOSPITAL. 


71 


" I believe I do,” Mrs. Briggs replied. 
"Why?” 

" Well, I am very much surprised to find she 
is the aunt of whom Pickles is always talking.” 

" Did n’t I tell you so? ” cried the major. 

"No, Archibald, I think not. You could 
never remember her name.” 

" But I insisted she was somebody worth 
knowing.” 

"Of course there are worthy persons who 
live over confectioneries” — began Mrs. Briggs. 

" Bosh ! Marion. In these days of flats the 
best sort of people live over stores. Don’t be 
a snob. Worthy persons indeed!” Mr. 
Aleck was highly incensed. 

" I must say your manners are not improv- 
ing, Aleck. You did not allow me to finish. 
I was going to add that I saw Miss — Raymond, 
is it? — with the child you will call Pickles, 
and she is an extremely pretty and refined 
looking girl.” Mrs. Briggs was the picture of 
injured dignity. 

Her brother laughed and begged her pardon. 
"It is astonishing how our interest in this 
neighborhood grows,” he remarked. 


CHAPTER IX. 


A CONFESSION. 

Frederick had something on his mind, and 
Mamie kept reminding him of it by asking 
when Jumps would be coming again. Jumps’ 
breezy, cheery manner charmed Mamie. Fred- 
erick was fond of him too, looking up to him 
as a small boy does to a larger one. 

On his second visit — for Jumps came again 
and brought Otto — Frederick asked about his 
wheel, and Jumps explained that as soon as he 
had saved up five dollars more he could get a 
new one, paying the rest of the price in in- 
stalments. But he added cheerfully that there 
was always something to spend money for and 
it was hard to save. In the meantime, to use 
his own expression, he had to hoof it. 

Frederick reflected that Jumps could have 
made five dollars by telling the major, and he 
had n’t. Jumps was good not to. There was 
72 


A CONFESSION. 


73 


another thing. Miss Emerson had said on the 
occasion of some mischief, that when you did 
wrong you ought to be brave enough to say so. 
Frederick pinned his faith to Miss Emerson 
and wished to please her. So he thought and 
thought about it. 

Major Briggs and his wife were very kind. 
The major found Frederick amusing ; Mrs. 
Briggs admired his golden curls and dark eyes 
and was happy in having an object to lavish 
attentions upon. Frederick received them 
graciously. He did not care for petting, ex- 
cept from Miss Emerson, he was too much of 
a boy for that, but he liked to have Mrs. 
Briggs near him. It was pleasant to touch her 
soft furs and to inhale the faint fragrance that 
pervaded all her dainty belongings, even her 
purse, which upon one occasion he had been 
allowed to open. It was not as interesting as 
the major’s. That was a large, flat affair, and 
he carried it in his breast pocket, and in it 
were bills — ever so many. Frederick was 
sure the major must be rich. 

" Say,” he began one day, when these atten- 


74 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


tive friends were making him a visit, " would 
you really and truly give five dollars to any- 
body who told you who wrote on your walk ? ” 

The major was surprised. He had ceased 
to feel very deeply about the matter. " Why, 
yes, I suppose so — yes, I said I would. 
Why?” 

"And what would you do to the fellow that 
did it? ” Frederick watched him narrowly. 

"Oh, I don’t know. Scare him a little, I 
guess.” 

The major did not seem dangerous. "If 
you ’ll give me five dollars I ’ll tell,” said 
Frederick. 

Greatly amused the major produced a five- 
dollar note from the before-mentioned pocket- 
book. " There,” he said, spreading it on his 
knee. 

Frederick put out his hand and touched it 
with one finger. 

"Well? ” said the major. 

Frederick heaved a deep sigh. " It was me,” 
he announced. 

For a minute the major did not understand. 


A CONFESSION . 


75 


" What ! ” he said. " Do you mean to say you 
did it yourself?” 

Frederick nodded. 

" You little rascal, you,” the major began, 
and then he laughed. 

" Oh, Archibald,” exclaimed Mrs. Briggs. 

The major continued to laugh as if he would 
never stop. Miss Emerson came in, perhaps 
to see what it was about, and he told her the 
story, pounding his knee and laughing again. 

Miss Emerson looked grave. "Why, Fred- 
erick,” she said, and Frederick, who was be- 
ginning to think himself rather clever, felt 
suddenly ashamed. 

" Would you do such a tricky thing as this 
when Major Briggs has been so kind?” Miss 
Emerson asked. 

"He can send me to jail if he wants to. 
Jumps would n’t tell and I — I ” — Here 
Frederick began to cry. 

" Don’t tease him. It was so clever of him,” 
said Mrs. Briggs. " Don’t cry, there ’s a darl- 
ing. You can have the money. Can’t he, 
major? ” 


76 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


" What were you going to do with the money, 
Frederick? ” asked Miss Emerson, firmly. 

" Gi-ve it to Ju-mps,” he sobbed. 

After a little questioning she had the whole 
story, and there was truth in the brown eyes. 

" I think after all he did not mean to be 
tricky,” said Miss Emerson, " but I don’t be- 
lieve he ought to have the money.” 

" I ’ll tell you what,” suggested the major. 
" I ’m willing to call it even, if Frederick is. 
He spoiled my walk, and my coachman ran 
over him. Now I have a five-dollar bill I don’t 
want. I ’ll make him a present of it and he 
can give it to Jumps if he likes.” 

Frederick looked at Miss Emerson, who 
smiled. " lam not sure it is right,” she said, 
" but as Major Briggs is so kind ” — 

" She says you can have it, dear,” cried Mrs. 
Briggs, putting the bill in Frederick’s hand. 

"Now I want to know how you came to write 
on my walk, and why you wrote Pickles said 
the major. 

"It was so nice and soft,” Frederick ex- 


A CONFESSION. 


77 


plained, " and I saw pickles on a sign in the 
grocery.” 

When they were having their supper that 
evening, Mamie, who had been an interested 
listener during the visit of Frederick’s friends, 
asked, " Are you going to give it to Jumps, 
sure enough? ” 

" Course,” was his answer. 

" I like Jumps,” added Mamie. 

" Who is Jumps? ” asked the nurse, who was 
feeding her. 

" He comes to see Frederick.” 

Then Frederick told about Jumps, and how 
he had climbed the electric-light pole to save 
the bird, and when she heard it Mamie liked 
him more than ever. 

Jumps was very much astonished and over- 
whelmed at being presented with the five dol- 
lars when he came to see Frederick on Sunday. 

"It ’s because you did n’t tell on me,” Fred- 
erick explained. 

"I’m not a tell-tale,” said Jumps, indig- 
nantly. 

"But you said maybe you ’d tell.” 


* 


78 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


" Oh, I was just teasing you.” 

It was some time before Jumps could be made 
to understand, and even then he did n’t want to 
take the money until Miss Emerson explained 
how disappointed Frederick would be. As it 
was, Frederick felt rather chagrined, he had 
looked forward to the occasion so eagerly. 

" Sometimes you think you are going to have 
a lot of fun and you don’t,” he remarked 
gloomily. 


CHAPTER X. 


MR. ALECK MAKES PLANS. 

One thing puzzled Pickles. Mr. Aleck took 
to going the other way in the morning. He 
had not moved his office either. Jumps said 
he hadn’t. In this way it happened that 
Auntie Bess had his company more frequently 
than her little niece. 

Auntie Bess was very busy just now. She 
was nearly through her kindergarten course 
and was hoping to get a position to teach. 
Grandmamma said she was working too hard. 

Mr. Aleck, too, was busy. He had been 
made secretary of the Good Order Club. 

One day Mrs. Briggs came to call. Pickles, 
who was coming in herself at the time, con- 
ducted her up-stairs and ushered her into the 
the sitting room, where Auntie Bess was at 
work. 


79 


80 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


Mrs. Briggs was a very elegant la(fy, but 
she was n’t quite so elegant as grandmamma, 
Pickles thought, for all her beautiful clothes, 
and she was right. If Mrs. Briggs had any 
idea of patronizing she changed her mind w T hen 
she met Pickles’ gracious, dignified grand- 
mother. 

When she was leaving she pressed Auntie 
Bess’s hand affectionately and begged her to 
come to see her. " I am lonely, I have so few 
friends here, and I want to know you,” she 
said. 

She invited Pickles to spend the afternoon 
and had Mabel and Phyllis Lawrence there. 
Pickles enjoyed it, for the major was at home 
and told them stories and showed them curios- 
ities from all over the world. She liked 
Phyllis, but Mabel hurt her feelings by calling 
Jumps ugly. 

" I don’t like my friends to be called names,” 
she said with dignity. 

"Ho, I wouldn’t have a paper-boy for a 
friend ; ” and Mabel shrugged her shoulders. 

" He is n’t always going to be a paper-boy,” 


MR. ALECK MAKES PLANS. 


81 


Pickles answered wisely ; and then Mrs. Briggs 
made them laugh by asking if they were talking 
about paper dolls. 

About this time Christmas came. The week 
after Thanksgiving our square showed signs of 
its approach. Miss Maggie began to make her 
window particularly gay with toys and dolls 
and china knick-knacks. The hardware man 
displayed some bewitching little cooking stoves, 
with an array of pots and pans to stir the 
housewifely soul to its depths. Some deli- 
cious ice cream freezers too, that would hold 
about a pint, kept company with pistols and 
fireworks. Mr. Levi’s window showed all sorts 
of oroodies, and outside were Christmas-trees 

O 7 

by the dozen. 

Auntie Bess liked the furniture man’s win- 
dow best, but Pickles did not care so much for 
antique brass lamps and inlaid cabinets. 

The Briggs family went away to spend 
Christmas and their house was closed, but the 
rest of the square had a good time. 

Jumps received a receipted bill for his 
bicycle from Mr. Aleck, which had on it : "For 


82 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


the boy who saved the bird.” Pickles had a 
beautiful book from the same person, and Lotta 
and Tina and Otto were not forgotten either. 

At the hospital Frederick had a royal time, 
his only regret was he could n’t have any fire- 
crackers. He was recovering rapidly, but 
announced with decision that he meant to stay 
there always. Pickles had been very much 
astonished to hear Frederick had done the 
writing on the major’s walk, and she was re- 
lieved, too, to find it had not meant her after 
all. 

After the holidays things settled down into 
the old grooves. The children went back to 
school, and Auntie Bess to her classes. Janu- 
ary was cold and stormy, and an epidemic of 
mumps broke out, so the neighbors did not see 
much of one another. 

Soon after Mrs. Briggs’ return Miss Maggie 
reported proudly that when the lady came over 
to inquire for Frederick, she bought some 
French cambric for a shirtwaist. Then the 
tailor’s wife had her story to tell. Mrs. Briggs 
had ordered a walking skirt from their shop. 


MR. ALECK MAKES PLANS. 


83 


Mr. Aleck laughed when he heard it, and 
said, " Public spirits.” 

"No,” replied Mrs. Briggs, seriously, " not 
at all. The Morrises recommended him to me, 
and I assure you he is not a cheap tailor 
either.” 

" It all goes to prove Pickles right when she 
calls this the convenientest neighborhood,” 
insisted Mr. Aleck. 

It was whispered about the neighborhood 
that Major Briggs intended to do great things 
for Frederick. The truth was the major had 
gone to Frederick’s father and offered to clothe 
and educate the child, who, by his lameness, 
would be unfitted for any hard work. 

Mr. Mackenzie, who had recently married 
the second time, was grateful enough to be 
relieved of this responsibility. 

Mr. Aleck explained this to Pickles and 
Auntie Bess one evening. He said as Fred- 
erick would soon be able to leave the hospital he 
thought of celebrating the occasion with a party, 
and he wanted suggestions. 

Auntie Bess thought for a while, her elbow 


84 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


on the table, her chin in her hand. Mr. Aleck 
watched her. It was clear to Pickles that Mr. 
Aleck liked to look at Auntie Bess. 

"The twenty-second is Washington’s Birth- 
day,” Auntie Bess presently announced. 

" So I have always been told,” remarked Mr. 
Aleck. 

" And you don’t perceive its bearing upon 
the subject before us?” she asked in a pro- 
fessional manner. 

" It is a holiday.” 

"Well, why not have a Washington’s Birth- 
day party?” 

" With appropriate decorations — I see. 
That is just the thing.” 

There seemed endless possibilities in the 
idea when they came to discuss it. Mr. Aleck 
took out his note-book and put down all the 
suggestions. 

" You can’t do everything at one party,” said 
Auntie Bess at last. " It will cost a good deal, 
but I suppose you do not mind that. I have 
rather fallen into the habit of considering the 
cost of things.” 


MR. ALECK MAKES PLANS. 


85 


" Not this time,” answered Mr. Aleck, as if 
he were in the habit of minding it, and was 
only making an exception of this party. 

It was such fun not to have to count the cost, 
— even Pickles felt it as they laid their plans, 
and she was very much distressed when bed- 
time came and she had to leave. 


CHAPTER XI. 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 

The invitations to Mr. Aleck’s party created 
the wildest excitement. For days beforehand 
Lotta and Tina and Alma could think of noth- 
ing else. It diverted Frederick’s mind, too, 
from his unhappiness at leaving the hospital, 
especially when he found Miss Emerson was 
to be one of the guests. 

The children all knew about Washington’s 
Birthday, for it was celebrated at school, but a 
Washington’s Birthday party was something 
new even to Mabel and Phyllis, who had been 
to parties of many kinds. 

Mrs. Briggs, who had rather laughed at the 
idea at first, became interested, and Auntie 
Bess’s suggestions were carried out in a royal 
way. The major owned some beautiful flags, , 
and with these the spacious rooms were deco- 
86 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 


87 


rated, and each guest as he arrived was given 
a tiny one of silk as a badge. 

Auntie Bess and Pickles helped receive, and 
Pickles wore red, white, and blue ribbons on 
her white dress. 

The hour was six o’clock, as Jumps could 
not come in the afternoon. It was not a large 
party, only a dozen children and seven or eight 
grown people, and there was not the least 
stiffness about it. The major and Mr. Aleck 
made everybody feel at ease. As soon as all 
had arrived, the guests were conducted to the 
dining-room where the fun began in earnest. 

The table in the centre of the room was 
enough to stir anybody’s patriotism. On it 
stood a birthday cake covered with white icing 
and thirteen red and blue candles, while around 
the edge drooped tiny American flags. From 
a bouquet of flags in the chandelier hung red, 
white, and blue ribbons, which were caught at 
the four corners of the table in large bows. 
Red and white roses bent their lovely heads 
over silver vases, and candles in gauzy red 


88 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


shades cast a soft glow over everything. At 
each place lay a toy hatchet. 

Pickles clasped her hands in admiration. 
" Is n’t it perfectly beautiful ? ” she cried. 

" What a heap of candles ! ” remarked 
Frederick. 

"It is almost as pretty as the table at 
mamma’s luncheon,” said Mabel. 

" Oh, Mabel, it ’s prettier ! ” Phyllis ex- 
claimed. 

"Just look at all the ribbon,” Lotta whis- 
pered to Alma. 

" And the hatchets. What are they for, Mr. 
Aleck? ” asked Jumps. 

" You ’ll find out after a while,” was the 
reply. 

Only the younger guests were seated at the 
large table. The grown people were placed at 
two side tables where they could look on at the 
children. 

Lotta and Tina were rather bewildered. 
They had never associated things to eat with 
ribbons and flowers, but they discovered before 
long that they went very well together. 


L.cfC. 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 


89 


The elegance of everything might have had 
a subduing effect upon some of the guests if Mr. 
Aleck had not kept them laughing. When the 
ices were served and the time came to blow out 
the candles and cut the cake, he made a speech. 

He said he had always wanted to have a 
birthday party, but his birthday came at an 
inconvenient time, in the middle of the summer, 
so a Washington’s Birthday party had been 
suggested as the next best thing. Then he 
wanted to know if any one could tell him why 
he had thirteen candles on Washington’s cake. 

" ’Cause he was thirteen years old,” Otto 
said confidently. 

" No doubt he was once,” Mr. Aleck agreed, 
" but that is n’t the reason.” 

And now Lotta redeemed the family by 
guessing it was because there were thirteen 
States at the time of the Revolution. 

" That is it exactly. If Washington were 
alive to-day he would be something like one 
hundred and seventy years old, and a cake 
would have to be rather large to accommodate 
so many candles.” 


90 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


" I ’d like to have one that big,” said Fred- 
erick, modestly. 

" I know what the hatchets are for,” remarked 
Pickles. " ’Cause Washington cut the cherry- 
tree.” 

" But you don’t know what we are going to 
do with them,” said Mr. Aleck. , " And now I 
wish to be allowed to finish my speech and get 
in a moral. What is the use in being grown 
up if you can’t point a moral sometimes ? I am 
not going to talk about Washington, for you 
all have heard a great deal about him at school, 
and these colors and candles and hatchets speak 
of him, but I want to say a word about our 
square. This is a neighborhood party — all 
except Miss Emerson, and she is interested in 
it. When I came here to live about six months 
ago I did n’t care much for the neighborhood ; 
then I came to know Pickles and I found she 
liked it, so I concluded there must be some- 
thing pleasant about it, and the longer I live 
here the better I am pleased with it. 

" Washington left us the great lesson of 
loving our country, but there are few of us 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 


91 


who can do anything directly for our country. 
We can, however, do something for our neigh- 
borhood ; and after all, what is our country but 
a lot of neighborhoods? 

" You may have noticed that a good many of 
the trees on this square have died in the last 
few years, and I happen to know the Park 
Commissioners are going to put out some new 
ones for us. Won’t you do all you can to help 
these trees to grow ? This is one way in which 
to make our neighborhood pleasant. There 
are others, but I ’ll mention only one. The 
most important thing in a neighborhood is, after 
all, the people. Let ’s try to be kind, pleasant 
people.” 

Mr. Aleck’s speech was heartily applauded, 
and they all promised to take care of the new 
trees. 

When Washington’s Birthday cake was cut 
it was found to be full of marshmallows, and it 
was unanimously decided to be worthy of him. 

"Now,” said the major, "we’ll go back to 
the drawing-room and play games till it is time 
for the cherry-tree.” 


92 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


What in the world could this be ? It remind- 
ed them of their hatchets, however. Alma and 
Pickles had forgotten theirs. 

They played a number of good old-fashioned 
games, such as Stage Coach and Going to Jer- 
usalem, grown people and all, and even Mabel 
forgot herself and had a good time. 

It was after one of these games, when every- 
body had stopped to rest. The children, 
crowded around the major, were listening to 
one of his funny stories ; Mrs. Briggs was 
talking to Miss Emerson ; Auntie Bess, standing 
in the open doorway between the drawing-room 
and library, was readjusting her badge, when 
Mr. Aleck spoke to her. 

" I want to know why you are looking so 
grave,” he said. 

" I thought I was being very gay,” she an- 
swered, still absorbed in her flag. 

"I am afraid you did not approve of my 
speech,” he said. 

"On the contrary, I thought it quite the 
proper thing, coming from the secretary of the 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 93 

Good Order Club.” There was a twinkle in 
her eye. 

" Thank you, I am overwhelmed. But truly 
— as Pickles says — you were looking dread- 
fully serious.” 

" I had a little disappointment this morning,” 
she acknowledged, as they crossed the room 
and sat down on the davenport. 

" Yes? ” Mr. Aleck’s tone was sympathetic. 

"I was rather counting on getting a position 
in the Third Street School, you know, but it 
has been given to some one else.” Miss Ray- 
mond looked down at her clasped hands as she 
spoke. 

Mr. Aleck smiled, not at all as if he felt the 
gravity of the situation. 

" Of course, I suppose something else will 
offer ; but I am disappointed,” Miss Raymond 
continued. 

" I am confident of that. In fact, I think I 
know of something. It may not be exactly 
what you are looking for, but ” — 

As Mr. Aleck hesitated, Miss Raymond re- 
plied, " Oh, I am not so very particular.” 


94 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET . 


She lifted her eyes as she spoke, and some- 
thing in her companion’s face made her drop 
them again very quickly. " I mean ” — she 
began. 

" If that is the case, I ’ll take courage,” re- 
marked Mr. Aleck, cheerfully. 

" Oh, no — please — don’t think ” — Miss 
Raymond rose hastily. 

Mr. Aleck stood before her. "I must say it 
now, — I have waited so long. Listen, Bess. 
For three years I have thought of you. Be 
good tome. Won’t I do as well as the Third 
Street School ? ” 

" Auntie Bess, Auntie Bess, you ought to 
have heard the story the major told. It was 
so funny,” cried Pickles, rushing up. 

"Was it, dear?” asked her aunt, absently. 

" Don’t you think my stories are as good as 
the major’s?” demanded Mr. Aleck. 

Pickles looked at her aunt and then at Mr. 
Aleck. "Were you telling her a story? I 
don’t believe it was funny.” 

" It was true, though. Ask her, Pickles, if 
she believes it.” 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 


95 


"Do you, Auntie Bess? ” asked Pickles. 

A charming color spread over Miss Ray- 
mond’s face as she answered laughing, " I 
suppose so.” 

" Then ask her, Pickles, if she would rather 
have heard the major’s story.” 

" Would you, Auntie Bess? ” 

" How can I tell ? ” said Auntie Bess, saucily ; 
"I didn’t hear the major. Come, let us go 
back to the others.” 

In the drawing-room she played on the piano, 
and sang, and set all the children singing. 
She coaxed Lotta to recite, and told a story 
herself in a charming way. 

" What a great thing it is to be young and 
happy,” Miss Emerson remarked to the major, 
watching her. 

And Mr. Aleck looked on with a strong hope 
that Auntie Bess had liked his story. 

The last thing was the cherry-tree. The 
major said it was a cherry-tree when it was 
brought in. It was a leafless shrub, but its 
bare branches were full of fruit. This fruit 
was tied up in white tissue paper, with red and 
blue ribbons — a package on each branch. 


% 


HOW THE TWO ENDS MET. 


Pickles at once guessed what the hatchets were 
for. 

They took turns in choosing a branch and 
chopping it off; and it was really difficult to 
make a choice, for the packages were of differ- 
ent shapes and sizes, but everybody in the end 
seemed satisfied. 

Frederick had enjoyed every minute of the 
party ; but now that people were beginning to 
think of leaving, he had something on his mind. 
Miss Emerson said he ought to tell the major 
he was sorry he had written on his walk. She 
reminded him he had never said he was sorry. 

Frederick was n’t conscious of- feeling sorry. 
It seemed to him enough had been said ; still, 
the major w r as very good to him, so, plucking 
him by the coat as he passed, Frederick an- 
nounced, " Say, I ain’t never going to do it 
again.” 

" Do what? ” asked the major. 

"Write on your walk.” 

"Are n’t you? I am glad to hear it ; but on 
the whole I am not sorry you did it.” 

This was exactly the way Frederick himself 
felt about it. 


A BIRTHDAY PARTY. 


97 


The Washington’s Birthday party furnished 
the children on our square with something to 
talk about for a long time. There were some 
grown people, too, who never forgot it. With 
it this story comes to an end, for it is simply 
to show how the two ends of the neighborhood 
happened to meet. 

It really has nothing to do with a certain 
pretty wedding which took place in June, 
in the stone church around the corner, which 
interested the neighborhood beyond everything. 
Nor with how Jumps studied short-hand all 
summer, in order to be able to take a place in 
Mr. Aleck’s office in the fall. Nor with how 
well the new trees grew. 

Major Briggs was always wondering what 
would have happened if Pickles had not been 
written on his walk. 

Pickles said she was glad, at any rate, that 
it had not meant her ; and grandmamma hoped 
now the absurd nickname would be dropped ; 
but Mr. Aleck declared that Pickles was en- 
graved upon his heart, and that Elaine Ruther- 
ford could never mean the same to him. 





















